Guest Post: Sam Allen

Sam's blog, Put a Pen to Paper revolves around her writing. She writes fanfiction as well as her own original works. She is currently working on a fiction novel about four college students who find out they are the children of four Archangels. You can find a excerpt HERE.

Today, Sam has so graciously contributed a guest post about her writing and what it means to her.

Me the Writer

   I am a writer because…I know I can’t put it down in one sentence. It’s not very hard to explain why I am a writer; in fact the reasons are, for the most part, pretty obvious. My creativity comes from somewhere I believe that I haven’t even been to sometimes. From time to time I don’t think I’m that creative, and I just sit around wondering why I love so much to put a pen to paper and write. I guess for me it’s an outlet; for fear, anger, sadness, any overwhelming emotion that I happen to be feeling at that second. Also because when I first started writing I thought it would make me stand out more. When I began writing it was so original, not many people could go “I’m writing a novel” and then every other person I came across was writing a novel they too dreamt of getting published and I felt a little less special every time. Still those aren’t the real reasons for my writing obsession and my creativity. The real reason that I’m a writer is because it is who I am; it is how I was made. We are all born with passions and one of mine just happens to be writing.

   I write to help me feel, to help me express, and even to help other people understand me. There are times in my life when I have trouble rationalizing or explaining myself and when that happens the only thing I can think to do it write it out. When I write I can express my feelings better than I ever could out loud; I know that may be corny, unoriginal and hard to believe considering that I was also blessed with the gift of gab. I can write almost anything as long as I have an idea or a thought to go off of, but talking…well sometimes I can talk all I want and it still gets me nowhere, sometimes I talk and talk but never say a useful word.  When I write however, I can get it all down and hashed out and usually my meaning can be found. I can bear my soul as a writer and I can choose weather I want to show people or hide it. As a person I am an open book, my emotions are right out there for anyone to see but when I write I can close and lock that book and no one can see anything I don’t want them to. Then, if and when I choose to, I can open up to only my closest and most trusted friends.

   My writing defines me, tells my story, and reveals things about who I am. I am many other things besides a writer; I act, I sing, I dance, I love to read, I love photography, but writing seems to trump them all. Let me put it another way, writing and acting are always fighting for dominance of my heart andIn a dream I had once I was a famous actress and writer and I was asked in an interview which I loved more acting or writing. In the dream I gave an answer that I will now be giving forever, if I am ever asked. "Writing is in my blood, it flows through me, keeps me going, and gives me life, but acting for me is like breathing; and without breath in the body, the blood won't move, won't pump and will die. So writing runs all through me, but without acting, I wouldn't be much of a writer either." in a dream I had once I was a famous actress and writer and I was asked in an interview which I loved more. In the dream I gave an answer that I will now be giving forever, if I am ever asked. "Writing is in my blood, it flows through me, keeps me going, and gives me life, but acting for me is like breathing; and without breath in the body, the blood won't move, won't pump and will die. So writing runs all through me, but without acting, I wouldn't be much of a writer either." So there are many facets to me as well, and I can’t be placed into one category.In a dream I had once I was a famous actress and writer and I was asked in an interview which I loved more acting or writing. In the dream I gave an answer that I will now be giving forever, if I am ever asked. "Writing is in my blood, it flows through me, keeps me going, and gives me life, but acting for me is like breathing; and without breath in the body, the blood won't move, won't pump and will die. So writing runs all through me, but without acting, I wouldn't be much of a writer either." In a dream I had once I was a famous actress and writer and I was asked in an interview which I loved more acting or writing. In the dream I gave an answer that I will now be giving forever, if I am ever asked. "Writing is in my blood, it flows through me, keeps me going, and gives me life, but acting for me is like breathing; and without breath in the body, the blood won't move, won't pump and will die. So writing runs all through me, but without acting, I wouldn't be much of a writer either."I’m just a girl, a little complicated, a little lost, trying to find my own way so don’t try to get me to find yours. I can’t be told what to write, or force-fed an idea, I have to find it on my own.

    That’s what really makes me a writer, all this happens in my head; my thoughts come alive with worlds, and characters, and words that seem as real to me as the pen in my hand. I put myself into my writing; I live my stories. I feel the pain, go through the experiences and become each character that I create. Sometimes my wonderful friends make appearances in my stories or become characters themselves, our conversations and jokes adding to plotlines or giving us a laugh. From time to time my demons even follow me inside of the pages where a hero can fight them off for me.

   I know that this must all sound very corny, naïve, and fairytale-ish but I have a feeling that many other authors might feel the same way I do about what they write, and why they write. I’m sure every writer questions why they love to do what they do, but we can’t live without it, it is in our blood. I live to write, I speak through my writing so that in a way my writing is me. I am a creative person who was given a passion and I will continue to be a slave to my passion for writing as long as I have an idea in my head, paper in a notebook and a pen in my hand.